Skeptics versus Contrarians and Deniers

Posted on June 18, 2013 by Skid

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I accidently stumbled upon a website the other day that reminded me how dangerous the Internet can be for web surfers, especially students, searching for legitimate information. A simple search for a weather report landed me in the site of not just a climate change skeptic, but a climate change contrarian/denier.

A skeptic is one who doubts the validity of a scientific theory until proven otherwise – a necessary debate in science. But a contrarian/denier is one who dismisses the scientific validity of a theory despite overwhelming data, research, reports and scientific consensus. The term "denier" when applied to climate change was initially hotly debated by ethnic communities who claimed it was both usurping and denigrating the concept of World War II Jewish holocaust deniers. However, the terms holocaust and denier have legitimate and necessary meaning beyond the horrors of the last world war holocausts. Further, those terms are not owned by or copyrighted to Judaic history.

A holocaust is a sacrifice consumed by fire. It directly applies to fire and nuclear destruction involving extensive loss of life, but can also be extended to mean any massive slaughter of people. A holocaust denier is one who says the destruction/loss of life never happened. A climate change denier is one who says accelerating climate change due to anthropogenic causes is not happening. Both ways of thinking are equally condemnable.

When 95% of the practicing, published and peer-reviewed climate change scientists globally agree that a) climate change is a natural cyclical process, and b) we are living in a period of accelerating climate change due to anthropogenic causes, then anyone who disagrees with that consensus is not a skeptic, but a contrarian/denier. The accelerated change is a human caused economic decision, and the predicted collapse of species populations, including human, will result in a holocaust unparalleled in human history. The violence in the Middle East will pale in comparison with the global upheaval caused by the collapse of even one of Earth's ecological systems.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to predict what will happen when 7 billion people start scrambling for food and shelter on the remaining habitable spaces. The Earth is clearly saying, "You can pay me now, or you can pay me later." Deny this and we all pay.

*****

Skid Crease, Caledon

Trudeau is the Real Thing

Posted on May 11, 2013 by Skid

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Reprint from April 16, 2013: response to Caledon Enterprise reporter Matthew Strader’s headline story on Justin Trudeau, Hype or Hope?

Yes, Matthew, there is a new leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. And, like your childhood dreams of Santa, he is very much the real thing. I had the pleasure and privilege of working with Justin aboard the MV Lindblad Explorer during a Students on Ice Arctic Expedition in 2005. We were the teachers working with a group of seventy-five international students and a host of scientists and explorers.

Our job was to prepare the students to give voice to a Youth Declaration on Environmental Citizenship. Our students presented that Declaration at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 11) in Montreal in December of that year. Their Declaration, thanks to the support of then Environment Minister Stephane Dion, was endorsed enthusiastically by the United Nations delegates from over 150 nations , and tossed into the shredder in 2006 by a newly elected Stephen Harper.

During those two weeks at sea, Justin and I shared many stories of our fathers, their profound influences on our characters, and our goals in life. I can assure you with complete conviction that Mr. Trudeau believes absolutely in the vision of leadership to which he espouses. He deeply feels that the education he received as a young man growing up at his father’s side, immersed in politics, traveling the world, listening to the conversations between his father and kings, presidents, and prime ministers was a gift given to him, one that he feels he must give back to his country.

Can he win the country? He will have to take Ontario and Quebec to accomplish that goal. And if my riding of Dufferin-Caledon is any bellwether, that will be a challenge. Historically in our riding, if the federal Liberal leader is riding a wave of popular support across the country, a top-notch, well-financed local candidate running a flawless campaign stands a chance of winning. When I was involved in politics here, I was told that you could run a dead cow as the Conservative federal candidate in our riding and it would win by a landslide. I predict that our current Conservative MP will retire to pasture before the federal election of 2015. That will open the slate to an interesting choice for Dufferin-Caledon voters.

Indeed, the next federal election will offer an interesting choice for all voters. I choose hope.

Skid Crease, Caledon

“Dirty Joe”: Oliver, Oil, & the Science of Politics

Posted on May 9, 2013 by Skid

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Let's get this right, extreme right – according to Joe Oliver, Minister of Natural Resources for Canada, all those climate change scientists and educators are "radicals funded by foreign interests", guilty of "exaggerated rhetoric", who should be "ashamed" of themselves for making "wildly inaccurate and exagerrated comments." So, who are these radical environmentalists?

The targets of his ravings include James Hansen (pre-eminent climate change scientist from Cambridge University), Al Gore (Bush-whacked out of the U.S. presidency, climate change educator and Nobel Prize winner), and probably all of the contributing scientists to the upcoming 5th Report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Now he is turning his attention to the European Union for daring to suggest that Alberta bitumen is "dirty oil." Yes, DIRTY OIL, according to the cap and trade, carbon pricing policies of EU Ministers seeking to reduce their carbon footprints and fulfill their Kyoto and Copenhagen commitments. Noble, but not in Canada's economic interests.

Only yesterday, Oliver was attacking the European fuel-quality directive that labelled Canada's bitumen as dirty, claiming the EU draft document was "discriminatory towards Canadian oil and not supported by scientific facts." Discriminating, yes; not supported by science, no. I think it is worth mentionning, according to the most recent IHS CERA (Cambridge Energy Research Associates) reports, that the extraction of oil from bitumen produces 5 -15 times more greehouse gas emissions than conventional oil. So it is, without debate, a "dirtier" oil than conventional oil.

Given that fact, and the overwhelming consensus by climate change scientists that human activities are responsible for the current accelerated rate of climate change, Dirty Joe eloquently responded, "I do not deny the problem, which is a fundamental problem." Really?

Joe, you are full of dilbits.

Yes, there is a problem, alright. To paraphrase Pogo, "We have found the enemy, and it is our Conservative government."

*****

Skid Crease, Caledon

Making the World a More Beautiful Place

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Skid

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In the wonderful children's story, Miss Rumphius, by Barbara Cooney, the young heroine declares that when she grows up she wants to be just like her grandfather, whom she adores, and must visit faraway places and live by the sea. Her wise grandfather tells her there is one more thing she must do, the most important: "You must make the world a beautiful place." Young Alice grows up and eventually discovers what she will do to make the world a more beautiful place. And she discovers it right in her own community.

In my community, as in many this spring, volunteers are doing just that with a little spring "house cleaning" for their neighbourhoods.

On Saturday, May 4, our local Tim Hortons and the Stafford family have organized the Caledon Community Clean-Up, to begin at 9:30am at the Caledon Centre for Recreation and Wellness at 14111 Hwy. 50. Participants will be provided with T-shirts, gloves, and collection bags (while quantities last).

My family and I hope to see you there, working together to make our world a more beautiful place.

*****

Skid Crease, Caledon

Of Pandas and Pipelines and Profits

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Skid

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Having awakened from my winter hibernation, and ready to tilt at windmills once again, I am greeted by the front page news that our aboriginal peoples have been shuffled to the back of the deck – encore – this time by two adorable pandas from China. It should not have shocked anyone that the Prime Minister chose the Pandas in Toronto over the People in Ottawa. After all, the pandas are the ticket to the Northern Gateway Pipeline and the flow of Alberta bitumen to Chinese refineries. The Nishiyuu Walkers have no economic value to the Harper Government.

Please remember, our Prime Minister is not a statesman, he is a businessman and an accountant. Stephen Harper is the CEO of Corporation Canada and the country is open for business. Had he been a statesman, he and Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe would never have conspired to bring down the Martin government and crush the Kelowna Accord. Had the Kelwona Accord been implemented by the Liberal government of the day, Chief Theresa Spence's hunger strike on Victoria Island, the Idle No More movement, and The Walk from Whapmagoostui would never have taken place.

There is a reason why the World Wildlife Fund chose the panda as its poster animal – it is the most irrestably cute creature on the planet. You could put Kim Jong-un beside a panda cub and his UN ratings would go up. Prime Minister Harper's panda posing is the beginning of a long marketing campaign, sort of a cuter version of the Economic Action Plan commercials, to win the hearts and minds of Canadians over to the joys of doing business with China. And that ultimately leads to the approvals necessary for the Northern Gateway Pipeline and the billions of dollars that will bring to the economy of Alberta.

Next time you go to the zoo, just remember with whom you are doing business.